At half-time during todays match against Aberdeen we displayed message banners calling for No bloodstained poppys on our hoops in protest at the Clubs decision to once again wear the poppy on our shirts during next weeks game at St Mirren (a match our group will not attend because of this decision). This is in support of an appeal by Poppyscotland to all SPL clubs. Poppyscotland describes its role as supporting heroes and state that the poppy has become a symbol of remembrance and for the sacrifices made by our Armed Forces. Our group and many within the Celtic support do not recognise the British Armed Forces as heroes, nor their role in many conflicts as one worthy of our remembrance. Earlier this year, the Saville Report on Bloody Sunday confirmed that 14 unarmed civilians were murdered in Derry in 1972 by the Paratroop Regiment. They were among hundreds killed by the British Army during the most recent phase of conflict in Ireland. More recently, the British Armed Forces have murdered and maimed many thousands more innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. The poppy remembers not just our grandfathers who fought the Nazis but also those who bombed the Belgrano and brutally occupied the streets of Belfast and Basra. While we recognise the right of individuals to remember their dead and that many within the Celtic support will wear the poppy in memory of family and friends lost in WW2 and other conflicts, we cannot accept the imposition of the poppy onto our shirts.

As far back as April, representatives from the Green Brigade, Celtic Supporters Association and Celtic Trust met with Peter Lawwell to express our united opposition to the Club imposing the poppy on the first team jersey. We also know that the AICSC and many other individual supporters had called on the Club to reverse their position of previous years and take the poppy off the shirt. Following our meeting in April, the Club were contacted on several occasions for further dialogue on the issue but informed us that they were still considering their position and would get back to us. The first any group knew of the decision was after it had been made, and publicly announced. We share the views of the AICSC whose recent statement on the poppy stated that to see the jersey being used as a medium for such a divisive symbol and the message it communicates is deplorable, and that it showed a complete lack of respect for the support, further highlighted by repeated declarations on the official website of Celtics delight to be wearing the poppy and supporting Poppyscotland. It appears rather than leave his politics at the door, chairman John Reid, the former Armed Forces Minister and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Defence, has forced his onto the first team jersey.

As you may have noticed at todays game, we mistakenly missed out the D in bloodstained. This happened in the rush to finish two displays for todays game (with our Show the SFA the red card action before the match). The real mistake, however, is the Club forcing the poppy onto our shirt."

Clowns of the highest order - needless to say tthe vast majority of this group of non-MENSA members have nothing whatsoever to do with Ireland and practice their dissident Irish republicanism from those rebel hot spots of Inverness and Ayrshire. They need something in their sad Jakey lives and faux 'paddiness' is it.

Great to finally discover that HMS Conqueror didn't actually use MK8 torpedoes to sink the Belgrano but instead wound up to max revs in the full power state, took to the air over the South Atlantic and delivered an effective low level bombing run instead.